


Virtuous Circle

by commatothetop



Series: Circles [2]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Male Friendship, Military Homophobia, Outside Observer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-28 20:00:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13911117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/commatothetop/pseuds/commatothetop
Summary: It took a moment for realization to catch up with John.“Stephenson didn’t call Rodney a pain in the ass, did he, major?”“No, sir.”In which Rodney's in a relationship and John tries to figure it all out.





	Virtuous Circle

**Author's Note:**

> Set sort of vaguely in early-to-mid s4 in a universe where Carson and Elizabeth are still both alive and kicking. 
> 
> Thanks to my dear Sevsgirl72, who despite my best efforts still can't get into SGA, but still volunteers to beta my fic because that's how she rolls. Thanks also to my wonderful friend, the beta formerly known as DL, who made very helpful suggestions about structure and story development and probably won't be happy that I decided to ignore about half of them and go ahead and post this now anyway. 
> 
> At one point, Rodney sarcastically calls Radek 'Allie Calhoun' and if you don't know that's a reference to 'The Notebook' I don't blame you one bit.

_“It's a vicious circle.”_  
_“It is.”_  
_“It's a never ending circle.”_  
_“Just keeps going round and round.”_  
_“Never ends.”_  
_“That's what makes it vicious.”_  
_“And a circle.”_  
_– Dan and Casey, Sports Night._

\--

John doesn’t see him go down. It’s not until Teyla shouts that he looks across and sees Rodney crumpled on the ground, Teyla bending down next to him. The arrows are still flying around them, so he keeps firing towards the treeline while making his way over. 

“It’s a flesh wound,” Rodney gasps, scrambling madly to get up but not getting anywhere.

“We need to get him to the gate quickly,” Teyla says, as if John was planning to hang out on M4X-fuck-off a single second longer than necessary. 

“Teyla, run ahead and dial the gate, tell them to get a med team ready. Ronon, you take McKay and I’ll try to lay down some cover.”

Rodney groans.

“Sheppard! Tell Radek--”

“Tell him yourself,” John snaps as he lifts his P-90 and starts firing. It’s been forty-eight long fucking hours and he isn’t about to cap them off with Rodney’s last words. 

\---

John could have sworn he was in a good mood a minute ago.

He’d had a good day with Teyla and Carson on New Athos helping set up camp for winter. It felt good to escape the climate-controlled city and feel a nip in the air. After the work was done, they gathered around the central fire, eating the rich, smoky stew that Halling made from the deer-goat-y mountain-climbing animals that the Athosians hunted, and drinking Pegasus’ most ubiquitous beverage, a fermented drink more or less like beer as John knew it from Earth. The Athosian version of the Pegasus speciality was more like good beer than not, especially after some of Atlantis’ scientists had pooled their knowledge and given the Athosians a few pointers. It had been a good day, and he had been in a good mood when they went through the gate. 

The second he stepped through, though, the watch officer on duty was in his ear, gravely asking him to report to his own office. John didn’t use his office unless the task at hand was tedious or unpleasant. Given the speed with which they got hold of him on his return, he had a feeling this would be in the latter category. 

He was right.

Elizabeth was sitting on one of the chairs in front of his desk. Lorne was perched on the edge of the other and sprang to his feet when John strode in. 

“Major, doctor Weir. Why are we meeting here instead of your office?”

“Discretion.” 

Elizabeth looked pointedly at Lorne.

“We had a incident in the gym while you were off-world, sir,” he said, looking uncomfortable despite his best efforts at stoicism.

“What kind of incident?”

“Ronon tried to punch Stephenson through a wall.”

“What? Why?”

“My understanding is he was mouthing off about McKay, sir.”

“Why would Ronon care if some airman called McKay a pain in the ass? He says it himself every other day.” 

It only took a moment for realization to catch up with him. 

“Stephenson didn’t call Rodney a pain in the ass, did he, major?”

“No, sir,” Lorne said. "He... From what I’ve been able to piece together it was definitely abusive in nature.” 

He paused for a moment, standing up straighter. He didn’t look John in the eye when he added: “Sexual."

John swore. 

“My thoughts exactly, sir,” Lorne said. “I sent Ronon for a run to cool off. He’s up in the gym working with the marines now. Stephenson’s in the infirmary for observation until morning. The Daedalus is a little less than a week out, I recommend he be on it when it leaves again.”

“Harsh,” John commented drily. 

“There’s been some muttering in the ranks for a bit, sir. I think it’d be good to set an example.” 

Lorne looked grim. 

“There has?”

“Word’s been spreading about McKay and Zelenka, and you know what some of the guys can be like.”

“McKay and Zelenka? As in they’re a couple?”

“Yes, sir.” 

“I didn’t know.”

“Well, I don’t think they’ve been advertising it, sir. They’ve both worked with the military for a while.”

Lorne smiled tightly, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“So how do you know?”

“They were caught in a compromising position by another member of the science staff a couple of weeks ago and Dr. Zelenka gave me a heads up that rumors might start to circulate.”

John looked at Elizabeth. She sighed.

“Rodney made me aware of the situation not long after they started seeing each other. Considering that Zelenka is technically his subordinate, he wanted to make sure everything was above board, as it were.”

“Right,” John said. 

His best friend had a boyfriend and he hadn’t known. And now he had to focus instead of obsessing over that fact. Great. 

“Well, it’s probably a good idea to send Stephenson home. If what he was saying was bad enough to make Ronon react on Rodney’s behalf.”

Elizabeth nodded. “I agree.”

“Have you talked to Rodney?” 

“He and most of the engineering department are still out working on something with the load bearings on the South pier that is ‘critical and urgent, though not entirely life-threatening’ --” Elizabeth could really pull out a half-convincing Rodney when she wanted to “-- so we were thinking we’d wait until morning”

“Right.”

When he got to the gym, Ronon was about to dismiss the marines, so John waited by the door. As the guys left, Ronon nodded at John and tossed him a pair of bantos rods. When they finished – or, rather, when John was exhausted – Ronon handed him a bottle of water and they sat on one of the benches by the window. Once John had some breath, he turned to Ronon. 

“What happened with Stephenson this morning?”

Ronon shrugged. 

“I beat him up.”

“Yeah, that much I got. Why?”

“He was talking shit about McKay.”

“Like what?” 

Ronon shrugged again. 

“Cocksucker. Faggot. All the stuff that mean a man that likes men. Like it’s a bad thing. Like it makes him weak. You’ve got a lot of those words.”

“You don’t believe that?”

Ronon shook his head. 

“McKay’s weak because he won’t train, not because he likes men.”

John couldn’t help but smile at that. 

“You know, some guys talk that way. You’ve heard that before. Not necessarily a reason to punch them out. Was that all it was, name-calling?”

A muscle in Ronon’s jaw jumped.

“No.”

“What else?”

“He talked about doing stuff to McKay. Sex stuff. Degrading stuff. Beating him up. ”

“Did it seem like he would act on it?” 

Ronon shrugged. 

“I told McKay and Zelenka I’d look out for them.”

He looked John in the eye. John nodded. 

“Okay.”

\---

Ronon’s pants are quickly becoming sodden with blood, none of it his own. The run to the gate is an excruciating ten minutes, but they lose the natives about half-way there, which John supposes is something. Rodney, though, is unconscious and alarmingly pale in Ronon’s arms.

As they come through the gate, Carson and his team are just coming in with a stretcher, and Ronon carefully lays Rodney face-down on it to avoid jostling the arrow that’s still sticking out of his back.

John looks up and makes eye contact with Elizabeth on the bridge outside her office. She nods her head downwards, and his eyes follow her movement to settle on Zelenka. He’s standing at the mouth of the corridor leading towards the engineering labs, breathing hard. He must have run when Teyla’s call came through. He isn’t moving closer, and John wonders if he’s going into some kind of shock. Zelenka is watching Carson’s movements intently, and when the med team start moving towards the infirmary he sets after them. Elizabeth calls after him from the stairs and he stops, looking up at her. 

“They’ll take him straight to surgery. There’s nothing you can do there,” she says. 

Her voice is gentle, but firm, and he nods reluctantly, coming back to John and the team with her. Elizabeth looks at John. 

“What happened out there?”

“Natives didn’t like the look of us and wanted us to get the hell out. We tried evasive maneuvers, it got dicey and Rodney got hit.”

“Bad?”

“I didn’t get a look at the arrowheads, so I don’t know what kind of damage they could do. It was a ten-minute run back to the gate. He lost a lot of blood, but I don’t know how much.”

Elizabeth nods, and looks at Zelenka. 

“Go.” 

“Thank you,” he manages before taking off down the corridor.

\----

Rodney brought Zelenka to the arranged meeting and they got about halfway through a bickering, tangent-rich explanation of what had happened to the load bearings on the South pier before Elizabeth got a word in edgewise. 

“This all sounds good, Rodney, but that’s not what this meeting is about.” 

“Well, what?” 

Rodney looked about fifty-fifty curious and annoyed. Elizabeth looked at Lorne, who cleared his throat. 

“There was an altercation between Ronon and Lieutenant Stephenson yesterday. According to the people who were there, he said some stuff about you and pissed Ronon off.”

“What did he say?” 

Rodney looked significantly less surprised than John would have expected at the news.

“I’d really rather not repeat it, doc,” Lorne said, flushing slightly.

“What? Did he… Call me a faggot? Speculate that Radek is doing me because the best way to shut me up _would_ be a dick down my throat? Did he say that he'd like to see me on my knees? That a smart-ass mouth like mine was made to suck cock? That he wouldn’t mind bending me over a DHD somewhere and crack my ass open because with an attitude like mine I’m begging for it?”

Rodney kept rattling off insults with an impassive expression, freaking John well and truly out. Finally, Zelenka put a hand on Rodney’s arm and squeezed gently. 

“Rodney, that’s enough. You are making them uncomfortable.”

“It’s okay, doc, I get it,” Lorne sighed. “And it was... something to that effect."

“We’re sending him home,” John said. He wasn’t prepared for the way Rodney’s head shot up.

“What?”

“We’re sending him home. Next run of the Daedalus.” 

“For _talking_?”

“Doc,” Lorne said, more patiently than John thought he had in him. “You know guys like Lieutenant Stephenson.”

Rodney’s eyes narrowed. 

“What do I know about guys like Lieutenant Stephenson?”

“They’re all talk, right until the moment they’re not. We don’t want that stuff around here.”

Rodney stood, looking from Lorne to John to Elizabeth, then back to John. 

“This meeting is over. I’m not asking you to send him home."

Rodney left, with Zelenka on his heels. For a second, John considered going after him, but decided to let Zelenka handle it for the time being. Instead, he turned to Lorne. 

"What does Rodney know about guys like Stephenson?"

Lorne looked uncomfortable again. 

"Sir, I don't..."

"You're not getting out of this."

“He’s right, Major.” 

Elizabeth leaned forward in her chair. Lorne looked conflicted, but capitulated. 

“I was at SGC with some guys who had been with McKay in Antarctica. They all talked like Stephenson does, because some guys are assholes and assholes tend to find each other, but I always had a feeling that a couple of them knew too well what they were talking about.”

“They assaulted McKay?” 

“I don’t know, but if you’re asking me what I think? Yeah.”

“Oh my god,” Elizabeth said. “We’re definitely sending him home.”

\---

Zelenka is sitting in the waiting area outside the infirmary, leaning his elbows on his knees and staring at his clasped hands. 

“He is going to be fine,” Teyla says, with a confidence she can’t possibly be feeling, as she sits down next to him. 

“I haven’t told him I love him,” Zelenka says. “What if he dies, and I never told him?”

“He’s not going to die,” Ronon says. “He’s too stubborn.”

Zelenka smiles wanly. John wants to say something, but just then nurse Dirchen waves him through for his check-up, and he’s not about to compound the day he’s had by trying to argue with a German nurse. 

\---

Rodney and Zelenka were alone in Zelenka’s lab, working on opposite ends of the room. John considered coming back later, but before he could follow through, Rodney looked up and saw him. 

“I… Ah, can I talk to you for a sec?” John cast a look at Zelenka. “Sorry, Doc, I don’t mean to kick you out of your own place.”

“It’s fine, Colonel. I was just heading out on the South pier to take take a look where we did the repair work yesterday.” 

Zelenka stood, and Rodney turned to watch him stuff gear in a bag.

“Hey, remember to take some radiation readings. We don’t know what kind of stuff might have been in there.”

Zelenka smiled with more than a small touch of exasperation. 

“Thank you, Rodney. Having been born yesterday, I certainly need reminders of these most basic things.”

“Well, sorry for trying to spare you a second trip when you forget anyway, Allie Calhoun.” 

Zelenka smiled wider, and briefly rested a hand on Rodney’s shoulder when he walked past him toward the door. 

“I should be done in about an hour.”

“Lunch when you get back?”

“Yes. Unless,” Zelenka cast a teasing look towards John, “you get a better offer in the meantime.” 

When the door slid shut behind Zelenka, John thought “lock” at it for good measure, which it did with an audible click. Rodney looked vaguely alarmed, but motioned to an empty chair not too far from his own. 

“I’m not asking you to send him home,” John said, sitting down heavily. “Lorne seems to think that’s fear of retaliation talking. Or possibly that you’re so used to assholes dehumanizing you that you just take it.” 

Rodney didn’t reply, but he clenched his jaw and his chin jutted out in familiar McKay defiance. It felt off. Rodney should be blowing a fuse and ranting to the high heavens, not clamming up and refusing to look John in the eye. 

“Lorne was at the SGC with some guys who were in Antarctica with you.”

Rodney paled.

“Look, I’m not going to make you talk about it or anything unless you want to, but I need to ask you if you knew Stephenson before he came to Atlantis.”

“No.”

“Okay. Was there was any lead-up to this happening?”

”What does that mean?”

Rodney looked like he knew exactly what it meant, but there wasn’t any point in pushing him.

“Did he proposition you and you turned him down?”

“No!”

“You realize if that was the case there might be grounds for a dishonorable discharge.”

“I didn’t know who Stephenson was until I looked at his personnel file half an hour ago. He’s just a random asshole. I’m not having you invoke Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell on him.” 

“Lorne --”

“Lorne is talking out of his ass and won’t have hot water in his quarters for a week.”

“Lorne is trying to help,” John said. “His recommendation, which I’ve signed off on, is that we send Stephenson home. That’s final, and if anyone gets the idea to give you a hard time about it, I want to hear it.”

Rodney looked combative for a moment, then deflated.

“Fine.” 

Rodney’s acquiescence made John uneasy in a number of ways, but he didn’t quite know how to get at it. 

“Now,” he said instead, making a conscious effort to relax in his chair, “you and Zelenka, huh?” 

“Yeah.”

“Any particular reason I haven’t heard about it?” 

He tried to keep his tone light, but Rodney still winced. 

“We didn’t tell anyone. Well, Elizabeth, since there’s a chain-of-command-issue, and Carson, because he’s our doctor. Radek told Lorne in case there was trouble after Hirsch came across us stupidly making out in here. That’s it.”

“Why did you tell Lorne and not me?”

Rodney’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. 

“Lorne is the head of security on this base, isn’t he?”

“And I’m the military commander on this base, Lorne’s superior officer, your team leader, not to mention your friend!”

John grit his teeth. He really hadn’t meant to get angry. Rodney didn’t seem to take offence, though.

“And as my friend you would have been the first to know, if we were telling anyone.” He sighed impatiently. “Look, I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want things to change.”

John blinked. He couldn’t seriously… 

“You thought I wouldn’t accept this?”

“I… N--” Rodney paused. “Not seriously, but I wasn’t willing to take the chance.” 

“You didn’t trust me?”

It stung just to say it, and Rodney, to his credit, looked pained. 

“Not with this.” 

“Right.”

“John --”

“I have to go, I have to…” 

He trailed off, trying to think of a reason he’d need to go. Nothing came to him, so he shrugged and left. 

\---

When Carson comes out of surgery, John has just sat down across from Zelenka again, after showering and eating and trying in vain to sleep. It’s been almost six hours, and Zelenka and Elizabeth both look like they’ve barely moved while John’s been gone. 

“He’s going to be fine,” Carson says, looking like death warmed over and then some. “We’ve got him under a scanner now, to make sure we didn’t miss anything. If the scan is clear we’ll move him to recovery.”

“What are his injuries?” 

“The arrow was a broadhead, and a nasty bugger at that, but he’s been incredibly lucky. It nicked his colon, but only barely and beyond that there’s just muscle damage.”

A nurse nods at Carson from the door. 

“The scan is clear. It’s going to be a while before he wakes up --” Carson turns to Zelenka “-- but if you go with her, you can sit with him.” 

Zelenka gets up, grabbing Carson by the shoulders and kissing him on both cheeks before following the nurse inside.

\---

It took John a good six hours of paperwork and a heavy round of sparring with Teyla to calm himself down enough to just be plain pissed, and he was headed to the labs to give Rodney a piece of his mind. It wasn’t until he passed through the darkened outer room of the physics research lab that he realized the working day was over, and people had gone to the mess or their quarters. So had, presumably, Rodney and Zelenka. Together. 

He was about to turn back when he saw lights in the inner room. They were both in there, Rodney working on a computer and Zelenka writing out an equation on a whiteboard. They weren’t talking, just quietly working. This, John supposed, would be what passed for domesticity in the Atlantis science department.

Zelenka put down his marker and regarded the board for a while, before taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. 

“Rodney, check, please?”

“Twoooo seconds,” Rodney said, raising his left hand in a ‘wait, please’ gesture while finishing his typing with the right. 

He joined Zelenka by the board, gesturing over his shoulder towards the computer. 

“Check mine while I…?” 

He trailed off, already engrossed in Zelenka’s equations, and Zelenka sat down by the computer. Silence settled over the lab again, and John was starting to wonder if they’d both, impossibly, fallen asleep when Rodney picked up a marker and pointed to a part of the equation. 

“Radek, shouldn’t this be a four?”

Zelenka looked up, squinted at the board and made a face. 

“Yes, you’re right. Sorry.”

Rodney waved him off, and corrected the mistake without another word. John waited for a few moments before realizing the chewing-out that usually followed a mistake like that in Rodney’s presence wasn’t forthcoming. Maybe this was the way they worked together now: In companionable silence and mutual math checks, without the competition and the bitching that had been their trademark the past few years. He wondered fleetingly if they faked it for their staffs’ benefits during the day. They traded places again, but Rodney didn’t turn back to the computer. 

“Sheppard is angry with me.”

Radek turned around. 

“He is?”

“He thinks I thought he might be a homophobe and that’s why I didn’t tell him.”

“Why would he think that?”

“It’s possible I got flustered and ended up implying it?”

Radek sighed, gently overbearing. 

“That’s not why you didn’t tell him, is it?” 

“Of course not.”

“So, what is it we’re talking about?”

“Look, we told Elizabeth and Carson. John’s the only one of the senior staff that didn’t know, and I definitely should have told him when you told Lorne.”

“Maybe.”

“He’s really disappointed.”

“That doesn’t mean it was the wrong decision.”

“Well, it doesn’t mean it was the right one, either!”

“No,” Zelenka conceded. “It doesn’t.”

“I trust him with my life, why couldn’t I trust him with this?” 

Rodney looked forlorn, and for a second John forgot to be pissed at him. 

“Well,” Zelenka said, a Cheshire grin spreading on his face. “I hesitate to suggest that I am more important to you than your life…”

Rodney rolled his eyes and turned back to the computer.

“No, see, this is your English failing you again. You’re trying to say that you relish suggesting that you’re more important to me than my life.”

“Possibly,” Zelenka grinned, returning to his equations. 

“You are, you know,” Rodney said after a while, his eyes firmly on the computer screen. 

Zelenka stiffened and turned around slowly, a stunned look on his face.

“I know we don’t, you know, talk about it or anything,” Rodney continued, “but I just.” 

He gesticulated vaguely, still not looking at Zelenka. 

“Anyway. You know.” 

Zelenka walked over to Rodney, hugging him from behind and planting a soft kiss on the top of his head.

“I know, _miláčku_.”

“You know, pet names aren’t any less obnoxious just because I don’t happen to speak the language.”

“Ah, Rodney,” Zelenka said in a light, teasing tone of voice that gave John the sense this was a recurring topic between them. “You hate endearments, and so you don’t use them. I like them, so I do. This will never be resolved. I think the pertinent idiom here is, ah, ‘get over it’.”

Rodney snorted. He leaned back, resting his head against Zelenka’s chest and closing his eyes. John left as quietly as he could. He’d go back later. 

\---

John tries to sleep, he really does, but eventually he gives up and drifts back to the infirmary. Rodney is still out, looking pale and peaceful. Zelenka is sitting by the bed, holding one of Rodney’s hands in his own, muttering softly in Czech. He stops talking when John sits down by the other side of the bed. 

“What were you saying?” 

Zelenka smiles wryly.

“Every prayer I can remember, and some I can’t.”

“I didn’t know you were religious”

“I’m not. My parents were. I… There doesn’t seem to be much else to do.”

“He’s going to be fine.”

“Yes.”

“He knows,” John hears himself say, “that you love him.”

“I know,” Zelenka says, a hint of a smile flitting across his features. “But it’s not the same unless you say it out loud.”

\---

He went back to see Rodney the next day. 

“Hey, can we talk for a minute?”

“Sure.” 

Rodney looked sceptical, but followed John to an unused room off from the lab. 

“I figured out why you didn’t tell me.”

“Impressive.”

John rolled his eyes but let the barb go. 

“You didn’t tell me, or anyone else, because this is big. Like ‘the one’ big.”

Rodney’s eyes widened, and his mouth slanted downwards the way it always did when someone called him on an unpleasant truth he wasn’t prepared to cop to. 

“Well, I don’t actually believe in the whole ‘one true l--”

“Rodney,” John warned.

“Fine, yes, okay! I’ve found the love of my life, and instead of a stacked blonde it’s a short Czech with thinning hair and a dental situation memorializing everything that was wrong with Soviet health care.”

John swallowed. He hadn’t expected a straight confession. Generally speaking, the only thing that could make him feel better about his own interpersonal ineptitude was the fact that Rodney had it worse. If Rodney could articulate things like ‘love of my life’, John was dangerously behind the eight ball.

“Love of your life, huh?”

“You know,” Rodney said, “when you operate a gene-activated piece of Ancient tech?”

John blinked, confused by the abrupt change of subject. 

“Um. Sure?” 

“You know how it feels, obviously, in fact the sensation is probably more prominent for strong gene carriers.” Rodney trailed off like he’d given himself an idea, then shook his head. “It’s like you can feel the connection under your skin, right? Like it’s part of you, or an extension of you? Like you just know it’s going to do what you want it to?”

John smiled. Trust Rodney to find the perfect analogy.

“Yeah.”

“That’s what it’s like, with Radek. The first time, it was like something clicked into place. Like everything was suddenly _right_.”

“That sounds great, Rodney.”

It did. John couldn’t help a stab of jealousy. He’d never had a romantic relationship work like that. No relationship at all, really, except maybe his friendship with Rodney. The thought gave him pause, and he almost missed it when Rodney started talking again, in fits and starts.

“It’s… Before, when I dated Katie, it was. I don’t know. You and I had fun with it, you know? I said and did all the wrong things, and you mocked me and I pretended to be offended. The thing is, I didn’t want this to be a joke, but I didn’t know how to say it without it being a joke. I guess I was scared to say it out loud.” 

John let out a breath. 

“Wow.”

“Yeah.” 

Rodney paused. 

“We haven’t actually said it yet.”

“Really?”

“I want to. It’s just -- I’m scared it’s too soon.”

“How long has it been, anyway?”

“Right after my run-in with the Ascension-machine.”

“About six months?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s not too soon to say it,” John said, getting up. “Just so you know.”

Rodney nodded thoughtfully. 

“We’re heading to M4X-887 after lunch. Pre-mission briefing with Weir in half an hour.”

\---

“Radek?”

Rodney is stirring, and Zelenka jumps to his feet, leaning in and resting a hand on Rodney’s shoulder. 

“Rodney, _díky bohu_.”

“I need to say something,” Rodney rasps, taking the glass of water John offers and wincing as he swallows.

“Wait, I am calling for Carson.”

“No,” Rodney says, holding on to Radek’s hand. “This is important and I need to say it right now. I love you, Radek. I have for a long time.”

Radek laughs, and John can hear relief and delight. 

“ _Miluju tě_. I love you too, Rodney.”

John’s about to excuse himself when Carson bursts in. 

“Rodney! You’re awake!”

“Yeah.” 

Rodney waves his free hand in a vague gesture, eyes heavy-lidded. 

“How does it look?”

“The arrow did a fair bit of muscle damage, and it’s going to be a lot of physical therapy before you come close to going off-world again, but you should be fine.”

Rodney closes his eyes, and leans back on the pillow. John thinks he’s just about drifted off when he speaks again: 

“Oh, Radek?”

“Yes, Rodney?”

“I move we both agree to stop holding back just to avoid scaring each other.”

He opens his eyes with what looks like herculean effort, looking at Zelenka. The corners of Zelenka’s mouth twitch. 

“Seconded. Motion passes.”

“Good. So, commitment?”

“Yes.” Zelenka purses his lips. “Move in together?”

“I was thinking more like marriage.”

“I don’t suppose we are under Massachusetts state law out here?”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Rodney says, rolling his eyes, but Zelenka cuts him off before he can continue. 

“I was being sarcastic, Rodney.”

“Having my education in an actually useful field instead of, you know, law, I don’t know what sort of precedent there is for us necessarily being under U.S. jurisdiction out here anyway, but either way it’s legal in Canada. We’ll take three days off, and come back as doctors Zelenka-McKay.”

“Zelenka-M-- _Ty vole_ , Rodney! McKay-Zelenka sounds much better, it rolls off--”

“I have one of the most recognizable names in astrophysics, and you want me to trade it because your way _sounds better_?”

“Boys,” Carson says. “Perhaps you could worry about the name some other time? Rodney needs to rest. And so,” he looks at Zelenka, “do you.”

“Fine,” Rodney says, laying back and letting his eyes fall closed.

Zelenka squeezes his hand, nods at Carson and goes to leave.

“Hey,” John says. “Did you guys just get engaged mid-argument?”

“Yes,” Rodney says, without opening his eyes. “Though I’m probably stoned off of whatever painkiller Carson has me on, so it’s entirely possible I’ll have no memories of this in the morning.”

“I’ll remind you,” Zelenka promises gravely from the doorway. 

“Well. Er. Congratulations?”

“Thank you,” Zelenka smiles as he turns and leaves. 

“Thanks,” Rodney says, sounding half-asleep. “Thanks for saving my life too.”

“That was Ronon,” John says dryly. 

“Okay. So I should ask Ronon to be my best man?”

Rodney’s eyes are still closed, so John feels safe smiling fondly at him.

“No, Rodney, I’ve got you.”

“Good,” Rodney says, smiling as he falls asleep.


End file.
